Women have always held a major place in my life; My mother, obviously, and then a lifetime of meaningful relationships with friends, colleagues, and family. My career as a jewelry designer further situated me in a predominantly female world. All as one would expect, and yet somehow enhanced, deep, and very special.
With so much female energy around me, in the art studio I needed to talk about the masculine in my life--as a gay man I craved the space to explore that dynamic. But after my 2013 show at James Oliver Gallery, The Making of a Modern Man, I looked around, I looked inside, and I realized that I could not continue to segregate the rest of my life from my art; and my life was calling out for a celebration of the women in it~
A protocol for the portraits was next; arriving at a collaborative model was the pivotal moment that allowed the series to emerge in an authentic way. At that point I quickly jotted down a list of 20 women. Additionally, over the last six years, a half dozen new, meaningful relationships have emerged. The hardest decision of all was to split the body of work in half, due to practical considerations of space and time. So this show is Part 1, comprising 17 portraits. Stay tuned for Part 2, equally meaningful to me and in the works...
